VPSL resigns, denies harassment

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Nicole Pozer resigned from the STUSU this week due to “personal reasons” (Submitted)

Nicole Pozer, former vice president student life, denies her resignation was based on academics or harassment.

Pozer also denied speculation that she was resigning because of a prank war amongst the executives which targeted her several times.

A Facebook friend of Pozer’s told the Aquinian someone posted a picture of condoms on Pozer’s Facebook wall with a title similar to “busy night ahead.” Other pranks include changing relationships statuses and where one executive went to school. The posts have since been removed so they can’t be confirmed.

Other executives have been tight lipped about the pranks. Vice president administration Mackay-Boyce did not have an answer to questions about the pranks being pulled.

Hoben said they had a half hour discussion about what Pozer had previously discussed with the executives.

“It had nothing to do with them,” Hoben said.

“Nicole knew she was in too deep and had to put herself first. Today the final decision was reached. We weren’t expecting it but we knew it could happen.”

Pamphlets about harassment were passed out at the meeting.

STUSU president John Hoben announced at the St. Thomas University Students’ Union meeting Thursday night, that Pozer resigned from council.

“We had a discussion with her about it and her reasons are personal. I would recommend that council accept her resignation. I’m not at liberty to discuss what was said in a confidential meeting, but I can assure you they were valid reasons and I urge you to accept that,” Hoben said.

Pozer has not been willing to expand on the reasons for her resignation from the position she won by a landslide last spring. She did dispel rumours circulating that she stepped down for academic reasons.

“At the end of my last academic year, I suffered a lower GPA. This was a combination of stress on my health and some personal issues during last year. This was only apparent on my transcript after I had won the election. This year, I acted as VPSL from May until now, held a second job at the mall, and I am doing much better academically. The reasons for my resignation were not academic. If anything my role in student services encouraged me to excel in classes.”

Pozer has been heavily involved in student life since the beginning of her career at STU. She served as president of Rigby Hall in her second year, and worked as a residence advisor during her third.

In other council news, it took almost 10 minutes to fully explain the by-law suspensions requested and the reasons for them.

One by-law suspended was the time limit for how long a position on council may remain vacant. The by-law says an election must be called within two weeks, but since the chief returning officer was fired two weeks ago, a new CRO must be hired before another by-election can be held.

“Fin and myself could have run the election again, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable with that where it’s someone that we’re going to be working so closely with,” Hoben said.

Hoben nominated Henri Thibeau to serve as an interim vice president student life.

Council voted to pay Thibeau at the full rate for the five weeks of his appointment. The budget lists a yearly salary of $5000 for each of the vice-presidents and $9000 for the president.

Tom Cat

Michelle

I mostly take issue with the title of the article. "Former VPSL resigns…"

In order to resign from a position, one must hold it. There for a former vice-president cannot resign from a position.

A current vice-president can resign. A former vice-president may talk about why she resigned. Once it has been stated that she resigned she can be referred to as a former VPSL. To call her a former vice-president before stating she resigned implies she was not a vice-president when she resigned, which is quite confusing and impossible.

Alternatively, there could be a hole in the space-time-continuum allowing the vice-president to jump through the hole, there by allowing her to currently resign from her former position.

In which case the real news story here is that a STU student has discovered time travel. 🙂